An Open Letter to Taylor Swift

We aren’t on first name terms yet, but for the sake of the vulnerability in this letter to you I need to just call you by your first name. I hope that’s okay.

I first started listening to your music when your singles Tim McGraw and Our Song came out in 2006. I knew I liked you then, but I didn’t know that you would change me.

Of course your songs about love and heartache always hit me exactly where I was. They had me laughing and singing through the storms and I have the very best memories connected to your music.

I remember falling in love head first fearless. The new beginnings of what I thought would be a fairytale ending. I danced in so many storms with him, in all my best dresses, until one day I woke up and realized the face of an angel only came out when he needed it to. The person I was losing myself to didn’t care how he hurt me or used me. Maybe I was naïve, got lost in his eyes and never really had a chance.

I wasn’t his princess and that wasn’t my fairytale.

I will never forget losing the people I trusted most to switching sides and wildfire lies. That was when I learned just how cruel people could be. The truth hurt so much sometimes it didn’t even feel like life was worth living, but the cycle ended right there because they don’t know what they don’t know… and I moved on to a big ol’ city, and all they ever were was mean.

Late in 2010 the playful conversation starts, and I countered all his quick remarks. He understood my heart in a way that no one ever has. The lingering question kept me up, 2 a.m., who does he love? I was enchanted to meet him. Please don’t be in love with someone else. I’m wonder-struck, dancing around all alone and 30 days later I find myself riding in the car with him by my side, the windows down, singing today was a fairytale, all that I can say is now it’s getting so much clearer. Nothing made sense until the time I saw your face.

Three years later I got tired of waiting, wondering if he was ever coming around. Is this in my head? I don’t know what to think, then he kneeled to the ground and pulled out a ring.

March 15, 2014 everything has changed. I just get to know him better now as we say yes to forever. You will be mine and I will be yours. All I feel in my stomach is butterflies, the beautiful kind while I put on my white dress to see the person I’ve been waiting my whole life for.

Taylor, your music has been instrumental in helping me celebrate my memories as well as deal with my regrets and put the past behind me. I know that you have done this for so many other people too. It takes a very humble and courageous heart to share your true feelings and stories with the world. You have done this with grace and positivity and even though some people may think it’s silly that I claim a pop star has changed my life, there are some things that I know they, too, can learn from you.

We have to dance our way through heartbreak.

We have to dance our way past the haters.

We have to dance even when we don’t know how.

This is quite possibly one of the most important things I have ever learned.

Along side my wonderful husband, you have helped me choose a better way of life that’s about taking myself less seriously and shaking off the mess that really just doesn’t matter, because…

You stayed true to yourself, even when Hollywood told you to be someone else. You have embraced your flaws, laughed at them, and shown the world thatloving yourself and loving people is the best way to live.

I can only hope and dream that one day I will have a teenage daughter who is inspired by a classy and elegant leader like you and falls in love with life the way you have helped me.

Long live the walls we crashed through.

I am having the time of my life fighting dragons with you.

Love, one of your biggest admirers,

Hannah

-Has Taylor helped you?

*If you are not a Taylor Swift fan (shame on you) but many of the words in this blog post are lyrics from Taylor’s songs. You should download them and dance.

7 Comments

Leave your reply.

(P.S. Is it sad that I saw “open letter” and expected a passive-aggressive rant for a pop star to read? Sigh, that makes me so sad that I’ve grown to expect that in the Christian community. 🙂 Thank you for proving my expectations wrong!)

Ok, I am so glad you wrote this because I am an adult Taylor lover too. She has helped me so much. I have a ton of friends who are amazing dancers, but I am pretty awkward. Taylor has helped me embrace it! She has also inspired me to encourage other people as well.

“We have to dance even when we don’t know how.” – I Love this! You know that feeling you get when you’re listening to a Sad song, but it actually makes you really happy because you feel like you’ve gone through exactly the same thing, Thats how Taylors music makes me feel.